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personal finance reader

Welcome to the Globe and Mail Personal Finance Reader. I'm Rob Carrick, personal finance columnist at The Globe, and each week I compile a list of articles, blog postings, videos and websites that represent the best of what the online world has to offer on money-related subjects.

One of the things we look at in this edition of the Reader is the trendiness of frugality. It's all about celebrating an extreme level of thrift that in better economic times would be called cheapness. You may already know the drill - clip coupons, buy groceries on sale and go only to restaurants where the kids eat free. This is not a trend, I must point out, that we follow much at our house. The furthest we go is buying the kind of steak that's on sale. I will also drive an extra couple of minutes to fill up on cheap gas, but my wife won't. That's more a function of personality than personal finance. I never let the gas get down to the E; she never looks at the gas gauge.

I've always thought that one of the biggest no-brainer ways to save money is to get the lowest possible interest rate on a mortgage and thereby minimize the interest you pay. To that end, I have included the latest intelligence on mortgages rates and strategies. You'll also find investing commentary on bonds and emerging markets, and a review of a credit card for people who like the idea of earning cash as opposed to travel rewards. Sounds like a natural for the frugalocracy.

Found something on the Internet that your fellow investors might enjoy? Talk to me at rcarrick@globeandmail.com

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From The Globe and Mail and Globe Investor

Building Blocks A special series geared towards educating young couples about personal finance launched this week. Check out this story and this video for tips on how to negotiate your first mortgage

Tax Matters Tim Cestnick explains how joint ownership can lead to costly litigation, unless you document your intention

Home Cents Chaya Cooperberg blogs about Canada's anemic first-time home buyers' credit This week she also weighed in on how to be house rich, not house poor.

Let's Talk Investing In this video, find out how to shave your car insurance bill

Online Discussion A tax expert answered your questions on the harmonized sales tax and consumers, small businesses, and investments



Must Reads From Around the Web

Save Us Meet what could be American's cheapest family, the Economides (I kind you not). Annette, Steve and their five children spend $350 (U.S.) on food and cleaning products per month, which is close to $150 more than my family of four spends per week. How do they do it? The Four Pillars blog checks out the Economides and other exemplars of a recession-born frugality movement.

Frugality is an obvious response when you've lost your job or you're worried about being laid off. But there's more to this trend. Profligate spending in the pre-recession years seems to have fed a Newtonian equal-and-opposite reaction for some people. Debt guru Gail Vaz-Oxlade looks at reasons why people spend in a blog post titled " Lifestyle inflation."

Further musings on lifestyle inflation from the MoneyNing blog.

Somewhere on the continuum between the Economides and the people who spent themselves into a corner are regular folks trying to do the best they can. One of them is the woman who writes the Give Me Back My Five Bucks blog, which is a diary about setting financial and personal goals and then trying to meet them on a daily basis. Check it out for some of the most unaffected, real-life content in the personal finance blogosphere.

Mad As Hell Globe readers have been venting for weeks about Toronto-Dominion Bank's recent announcement that it will follow the lead of other banks and increase interest rates on home-equity lines of credit. Here's the story of what one woman did when her bank raised rates on her credit card.

Mortgage Musings The interest rate on variable-rate mortgages has finally returned to prime (that's 2.25 per cent) at some lenders, down from prime plus 1 percentage point or more at the height of the financial crisis. Should you jump on variable-mortgage, then? Before you do, the Canadian Mortgage Trends blog suggests you check out a one-year fixed-rate mortgage.

Here's another take on the variable-vs.-fixed rate debate, this one from the Mortgage Marcus blog. Both this blog and Canadian Mortgage Trends are written by mortgage brokers. Always know where your financial information is coming from.

One more view on variable-rate mortgages, this one from the Canadian Capitalist blog.

This roundup of mortgage rates from the Ratebot website gives you a great overview of what's out there. Note: the variable rates quoted here suggest some lenders have gone a bit below prime.

Bond Shelter What if the stock markets blow up again? That's one argument for holding bonds. Another is that you might just pick up some decent gains if the economy falters enough to spark serious deflation, or price declines. Bill Gross, the well respected U.S. bond fund manager, is preparing for this eventuality by buying long-term U.S. government bonds (known as Treasuries in financeland). If we get deflation, these bonds will rise in price.

Hot and Hotter If you think North American stock markets have been hot, check out what's going on in emerging markets. The iShares MSCI Emerging Market Index Fund, an exchange-traded fund listed on the NYSE under the symbol EEM, is up about 55 per cent this year, more than double what ETFs tracking the U.S. and Canadian markets have delivered. More outperformance could be ahead, the Canadian Financial DIY blog suggests.

Speaking of hot investments, sugar's looking sweet these days. As this post on the Reformed Broker blog tells us, sugar prices are soaring thanks in large part to enthusiastic buying by hedge funds.

Reward Yourself Travel rewards are hugely popular among credit card customers, but some people prefer the everyday practicality of cash back. If you're in this group, here's a review of Bank of Nova Scotia's Momentum Visa from the Million Dollar Journey blog.

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